i'm. coming up on our t.v. and d. eight twenty fourteen is out on capitol hill lawmakers have been dragging their feet when it comes to funding the defense department but yesterday they announced an agreement so what's in the new n.b.a. and what's been left out details on that ahead and homelessness on the rise in new york the growing income inequality is forcing families out of their homes and as a result the big apple is seeing the most homeless children since the great depression more of these dire economic conditions coming up. and sheriff deputies charged with abuse in los angeles county eighteen sheriff deputies are being accused of abuse in local prisons now it looks like the jailers might end up being jailed themselves an in-depth look at this case later in the show.

it's tuesday december tenth four pm in washington d.c. i'm in new york david in or watching our team. well prominent lawmakers have come to an agreement on the latest version of the n.b.a. or the national defense authorization bill with the clock ticking down until the house adjourns for the holidays this friday leaders of the senate and house armed services committees worked out a deal to move forward with a bill that will fund the u.s. military next year the twenty fourteen bill will authorize five hundred fifty two billion dollars in national defense spending and nearly eighty one billion for overseas contingency operations yesterday i attended a press conference in which the leaders of those committees expressed confidence that the bill would be passed in due time however if it's not passed there are a number of extensions that are set to expire now those include combat pay hardship duty pay special pay for nuclear nuclear qualified service members and listen

bonuses incentives pay retention bonuses and more mourning to senator carl levin but beyond funding the military passing this bill would have huge implications for get more detainees and for soldiers who are victims of sexual assault to discuss these developments a little bit more i'm joined by former congressional attorney mark levine mark thanks so much for joining me thank you for having me so i'd like i mentioned i was at this press conference where they announced agreement they talked a lot about how they have to push this this bill through the the time is running out can you talk a little bit about what they're doing now versus how this process is really supposed to play out first of all this is one of the few absolute must pass bills in washington this is actually the least productive congress in american history no congress has passed fewer bills and they did in twenty thirteen but the reason it's a must pass bill is because the constitution provides that there's no standing army in the united states that may surprise people given the military this is today but the founders require appropriations bills to be passed every two years or the army

ceased to exist that means they're going to pass this bill one way or another but why is it that so lawmakers are saying that this is going to you know a lot of things are going to expire if this is not taking care of before the holiday and it will is that. that really the case or is this something that they could possibly take up in january one they come back they will pass this bill there's no doubt in my mind they will pass this bill and they will not allow people to lose combat pay in this there are many many things that don't work in congress this is one of those things they absolutely will work out some agreement to do so well ok let's talk about some of the big provisions of this bill first of all get now there is an update with that let's take a listen first to what senator carl levin had to say the bill basically takes half of what we did in the senate and passes it and that is to give flexibility to the president to transfer detainees from guantanamo to third countries it maintains the prohibition on transferring detainees here for trial and detention

. right so like he said half of them are going to be transferred out they can go back to third party countries you know many people are saying that this could be the beginning of the and forget mel is that all that was really standing in the way of president obama you know closing this down are we have a green light now well first of all have already been cleared for transfer to other countries and they have been transferred president obama is obviously very nervous that he's going to transfer someone back and they're going to be engaged in terrorist activities that happened for some of them the released under george w. bush but more than half are already cleared another thirty five or so are cleared for trial and then the real trouble is about forty eight who have been deemed neither able to be transferred nor able to be tried there in this indefinite detention situation which i would argue is completely not in the constitution united states but this was set up under george w. bush it was inherited by president obama and congress is prevented from dealing with it in the way that i and many americans and the like to say to deal with that being put them on trial because they're not allowing the one thing that they're

sticking with us throughout allowing these people to come to the united states free to be imprisoned here or to be you know to stand for trial here so how can he really policy wise even get around that obstacle how would he be able to close i don't think he can i mean the congress has prevented it i mean president obama came in his very first years he's going to close guantanamo bay within a year and then congress passes legislation basically prohibiting him from doing so so for all the criticism of president obama for not shutting it down it really is congress's prevent him from doing that seems like it's going to be a huge sticking point well let's talk about sexual assault in the military because this was undoubtedly one of the most controversial issues to come up this year there was a proposed amendment by senator chris and there's very little brother until a brand and then also one by senator claire mccaskill those amendments were not implemented as far as i understand but there were some other measures can you talk about that's great. bill would basically take the prosecution of sexual assault

away from military commanders so normally sexual assault is prosecuted the courts as it should be with a civilian jury. but in the military there are special laws that allow the commander to weigh in and a lot of victims of sexual abuse it's not fair the commander may be friends with the perpetrator and a lot of social saltsman punished so they didn't get that bill through though senator gillibrand will propose it next year they did however achieve significant half measures for example if a jury convict someone of sexual assault it can be overruled by the military commander that person must go the perpetrator must be dishonorably discharged and the victim can get independent counsel and cases that are not brought are reviewed by a civilian review board to make sure that there should be brought other things that you can't retaliate against a victim you can't harm them in the military and there's no such limitations that maybe even the most important you can basically accuse people of crimes that occurred five ten twenty years ago right some significant changes indeed and we have to see if that it is taken up next year and lastly i want to talk to you about

something interesting i asked a question a very end of the press conference about a section ten twenty one which is the indefinite detention clause of the n.d.a. i'm sure you're familiar with it basically it allows for the government to indefinitely detain anyone including american citizens who are associated even in the least with terrorism i asked i pointed the question to all of them but buck mckeon is the one who responded and this is what he had to say to me. let me go back over and tell you that what we have in the bill will be an improvement over what we've already passed in the house and in the senate committee and it was an overwhelming vote so i think i think will be i think will be ok i think with the rest people's concern and thank you very much we need to go get the bill pass thank you now he wrapped it up really quickly after a match point we dodged it is an overwhelming vote he's right about that it has support from democrats and republicans i would argue though it doesn't have support in the constitution and states which i'm always carrying around with because the

constitution says the writ of habeas corpus the right to challenge your imprisonment shall not be suspended except in cases of rebellion or invasion this is a rebellion this is an invasion george w. bush argued i think wrongly that because what tom obey is not the united states of america even though it's in a long term indefinite lease right which is why i think it's basically a loophole therefore he didn't have to follow the constitution it's going tom obey i've never agreed with that i think clearly going to under our control and i don't think we can hold people indefinitely there but obviously congress at least disagrees with me maybe the courts will go on fortunately it seems like it's going to be a mainstay of this bill going forward afraid so but unfortunately run out of time mark levine former congressional attorney thank you thank you america and seymour hersh's calling out some news organizations who have refused to publish his recent story on the obama administration's case for war with syria are hearses a pulitzer prize winning journalist who accused the obama administration of having cherry picked intelligence as it relates to syria's august twenty first chemical

attack so why i couldn't hurst point the story print the story with his usual magazine the new yorker or the washington post r.t. political commentator sam sachs has more. this is pulitzer prize winning investigative journalist seymour hersh he's been exposing u.s. military intelligence scandals since vietnam and he's got a new scoop this one alleging that the obama administration cherry picked intelligence reports when it alleged that syrian president bashar al assad was behind the august twenty first chemical weapons attack near damascus published in the london review of books hersh argues the obama administration failed to acknowledge something known to the u.s. intelligence community the syrian army is not the only party in the country's civil war with access to sarah hersh goes on to say in the months before the attack the american intelligence agencies produced a series of highly classified reports citing evidence that the al nusra front as

you how to group affiliated with al qaida had mastered the mechanics of creating seren and was capable of manufacturing it in quantity than argues when the attack occurred al nusra should have been a suspect but the administration cherry picked intelligence to justify a strike against assad. the white house has called hirsch's report simply false as you'd expect they would now to be clear hersh doesn't know who carried out the chemical attack that night he just knows that for the second time in a decade the president of the united states was willing to take the country to war using intelligence that could be flawed. i don't know who did what but there's no question my government does not and there's also the question that the american president that we now have voted for. has a lot of good things about it was willing to go to war wanted to throw missiles at syria without really having a case and knowing you didn't have much of a case but hirsch's report didn't originally appear in the united states you had to

go overseas to the london review of books to have it published where it was extensively fact checked both the new yorker and the washington post rejected hersh a story. that's the same washington post that right after colin powell made his case before the u.n. on w m d's in iraq back in two thousand and three read an editorial titled irrefutable that editorial said after secretary of state colin powell is representation of the united nations security council yesterday it is hard to imagine how anyone could doubt that iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction and he offered a powerful new case that saddam hussein's regime is cooperating with a branch of the al qaeda organization that is trying to acquire chemical weapons and stage attacks in europe you don't bother looking for that article in the washington post archives it's been completely scrubbed you see hersh a story isn't just about intelligence cherry picking in manufacturing consent for

war it's about how the white house can get away with this stuff because of the sad state of journalism in america that you can create a narrative which he did and you know the mainstream press is going to carry out that narrative i mean it's almost impossible for someone that we mainstream newspapers who have consistently supported the administration this is after we had to have the scandal and everybody wanted to be on the team and it's in this way that seymour hersh actually became part of the story again not just a story of war but a story of how the media lets the president get away with war just like they did in iraq by silencing those who are speaking truth to power. two months ago the united states was dangerously close to making the same mistake it made ten years ago in iraq with a another war in syria as no one mainstream media outlet in the united states was willing to seriously question the legitimacy of the administration's intelligence claims and unfortunately they still aren't willing to in washington same sex

are two. and now to another voice straight from syria another agnes mariam democrat she came to the arche studios last night and had this to say about the plight of christians in syria currently. well to be a christian or to be a civilian in syria today it's really ventured because there are. daily bases big value relations of human rights nobody is safe today in syria because we have thousands of foot in their lives that come to syria to spread. violence in mali we are we are really lamenting the silence of the international community for this a beautiful a village among the most. all in syria and in the world they speak i meet language that christ was speaking of course in its. different transformation

and it is a world heritage. and there were no really no reason to put out to disappear pollution to slaughter people on a religious basis and now to a dark thirteen nuns and slee workers from the most of the. monastery indonesia and the santa tecla when s. terry who was hussain some to take love is a disciple of st paul and you put the blame squarely on the rebels and that of course they do it they have done it and they appear on the video as such they i'm not ashamed to do so. that was mother agnes mariam founder of james and mutilated monastery in syria. and today presidents prime ministers celebrities and thousands of south africans gathered to say farewell to nelson mandela died just last week at

the age of ninety five and guided south africa out of apartheid and into a multiracial democracy as president of the country thereby becoming an international icon of peace and reconciliation artie's policy here is in johannesburg and brings us more reaction from this historic memorial day was one of the most important days in south africa's history as tens of thousands of south africans an international dignitaries from all corners of the globe turned out to pay their last respects to nelson mandela it was one in a series of memorials that are being held throughout the week that will culminate with his funeral on sunday in his hometown of qunu in the eastern cape but as always on these sad and often tragic occasions world leaders use the opportunity for their own personal politicking not least of all the american president barack obama who raised quite a few are brawls when he shook the hands of the cuban leader now this is despite

the fact that an embargo is in place between the two countries obama was also smiling and on side being british prime minister david cameron and the danish leader they actually took a self shot of themselves and this despite the fact that there has been some kind of friction particularly between the united states and britain in recent weeks and recent months at the same time it was noted that the comment that was made by the czech prime minister who was caught on camera when he was commenting over the fact that he had a knee injury and might not be able to attend mandela's funeral at that time he said and i'm quoting i'm dreading i will have to go in the end he did not come but his foreign minister did come and what this does point to is the fact that world leaders use these kind of office. unities as an opportunity not only to pay respect to south africa's greatest son but also as an opportunity for their own personal gains that was our correspondent paul asleep. now contrary to what many people

believe homelessness is still very much an epidemic here in the united states perhaps the greatest snapshot of that is new york city where poverty has just reached its highest levels since the great depression of the one nine hundred thirty s. take a look at this this is data out by the department of homeless services and it shows the number of people in new york city who sleep in shelters each night as you can see that number has steadily increased since one nine hundred eighty three and fact as of september of two thousand and thirteen there were about fifty two thousand or hundred people in shelters that's a sixty nine percent increase since just january of two thousand and two but perhaps what's most unfortunate is that a large number of those falling under the poverty line are now children as you can see the number of children on the streets of new york has now exceeded twenty two thousand it's a shocking number that was explored recently in an in-depth new york times story that followed the daily life of one eleven year old homeless girl named sonnie and

now here to discuss this a little bit more is our tease ana stasia who joins us from our new york studio thanks for joining me so this new york times article chronicled the year in the life of this young girl her name is disarming and she lives in one of these shot shelters with her family it's a heartbreaking story can you explain the conditions that she lives in and tell us is this reflective of what many homeless kids are experiencing. well i mean you're unfortunately the answer is yes it is reflective of these staggering numbers of children that are going through homelessness as we speak this particular new york times piece of a very in-depth piece five harder chronicling the life of this eleven year old girl who lives in really disheveled brooklyn shelter with her parents and seven siblings she takes care of her babies not her babies her sister her younger brothers and sisters the conditions of the shelter are just they seemed mind blowing when you

read about them because this is something that happens is happening in the united states in new york city one of the richest cities in the u.s. and yet this is mice and rat infested. shelter where just there has been allegations of sexual assault and sexual predators that have gone unaccountable and just the struggles of this little girl showing exactly what it is to be living a life like that in this article really pushing forward a new wave of debate surrounding child homelessness in the u.s. like you rightfully said at twenty two thousand the highest number since the great depression in new york we talked a little bit to new yorkers about what they make of all this take a listen it's quite alarming as the economy picks up indicators getting getting worse it could get higher i mean like things are getting better but these are getting worse so it's kind of like this but. a lot of people just can't afford to live anymore like ways of living and being in new york this is like you

know the worst place to be so maybe people can like go somewhere else besides the big city bigger cities you know more metropolis a burberry is a try to make you know their lives where but it's hard here i'm an adult and it's hard for me to maintain with no kids so i can't imagine families trying to maintain here the one person at the top is been increasing it's it's fair more than its fair share and the people at the bottom tend to be completely left behind. well you know mira to give you some more perspective on how bad it really is because these numbers are hard to imagine the new york times makes a good point if all of the homeless children of new york city were to go into madison square garden which is a huge stadium in manhattan as many as over forty eight hundred children would be left without a seat so i imagine that is pretty staggering number that's that's really really scary to think about actually want to set that could you talk a little bit more about what is really fun to be behind these numbers what is behind this rapid increase in homelessness specifically for families well i mean

we're out what we have is a continuation of increasing home prices of course met with very low incomes and it's a widening gap and experts are saying this is likely to continue so because housing prices are going up and so many people are still unable to find work what we have is the situation where as many as fifty two thousand people are in shelters every night in new york city and it's twelve thousand people and families twelve thousand families and those families have children and the sad part really is that the children are the few the ones we don't see you don't know they are the invisible homeless because it's you know you're not able to tell on the street which child is suffering and who is not and so the numbers are that one in five children in the u.s. are living in poverty currently and the new york times again goes on to say that this is the highest number in the developed nation except for romania i think a lot of people would be surprised to know that some people are attributing the

growth of income inequality in the city to the policies of michael bloomberg we saw sort of a staggering increase in homelessness after two thousand and two which is sort of when he. came into power what exactly are they referring to what are these policies . well you know also from two thousand and eight homelessness has gone up by a staggering fifty percent so it's just the reason people are talking about bloomberg of course is because he has been mayor and just stepped down for twelve years and he has been and is one of the richest people in the united states and it's under his reign of that this increase enormous inequality gap kind of surfaced obviously it had a lot to do with the financial crisis of two thousand and eight but also you know bloomberg implemented certain policies back in two thousand and four where he said homeless people should be made more self-reliant and provided short term rent assistance to two homeless people in new york city hoping that this would empower

them this did not happen so a lot of people are blaming bloomberg for the reason that also millions of dollars were spent in certain projects in new york city whereas homelessness clearly obviously continues to be a huge huge plight of so many people here all very interesting stuff well thanks for your reporting r.t. correspondent. and there is a wide scope of illegal conduct inside the los angeles county sheriff's department according to the f.b.i. and federal prosecutors now more than a dozen deputies have been charged with corruption and civil rights abuses artie's ramon glendon takes a look at the scandal rocking los angeles. i'm outside of the f.b.i. offices in los angeles agents here are spearheading an investigation into alleged abuse and widespread misconduct inside l.a. county jails a stinging list of indictments including charges of conspiracy and obstruction of justice were handed down against eighteen former and current members of the l.a.

county sheriff's department federal prosecutors claim that members of the department consider themselves to be above the law this indictment charges a sergeant and four deputies with civil rights violations related to illegal arrest and detentions or detentions of people who are not inmates but rather people who merely went to the jail to visit inmates the federal investigation found that these incidents did not take place in a vacuum in fact examples of illegal conduct alleged and these indictments demonstrated that certain individuals and certain of that behavior had become institutionalized in one case u.s. attorney andrei brought claims that the austrian counsel general here in los angeles was illegally detained after trying to visit an austrian national who had been arrested and taken to jail and then there's a case of gabriel career who was allegedly beaten by deputies when trying to visit

a relative l.a. county's top cop responded to the allegations defending his deputies we do not tolerate misconduct by any deputies this department is grounded in its core values namely to our perform our duties with respect for the dignity of all people and the integrity to do what is right and fight wrongs we have fully cooperated with the federal bureau of investigation and will continue to do so. we have a very strong partnership please know that i respect the criminal justice system and no one is above the law it one of the most scathing accusations the u.s. attorney's office claims that deputies tried to hide an f.b.i. informant from his handlers not only that deputies are also accused of trying to intimidate a female f.b.i. agent people who i spoke to who are close to the case feel that more bombshells will be revealed as a federal investigation into misconduct at the sheriff's department continues in

los angeles among the legal r t. three hundred seventy three thousand nine hundred and ninety five dollars that's the price tag for a device that's been purchased by the indiana state police and though the department has described this device as a powerful tool in the fight against crime and terrorism it seemingly gives the police one more ability to track the cell phone data of ordinary unsuspecting individuals this is all according to newly released documents obtained by the indiana star according to the star the device is referred to as a stingray and it's often installed in a surveillance vehicle the sting rays have the ability to trick all cellphones within a certain distance into connecting as if the sting ray were a cell phone tower that connection then allows for agencies to track user cell phone data and clued in their location of calls the numbers dialed and their text messages but this device is not only being used in indiana it's being employed by

at least twenty four additional police agencies across the country that list now includes the d.c. metro area where a new report from given that shows that local cops in maryland virginia and washington are also collecting phone data privacy advocates are extremely critical of the expose program that they say raises a lot of concern gerri of the indiana coalition for open government had this to say about the findings what sort of reassurances can the agency make to those people that their data is being destroyed not maintained and definitely not abused for any purpose i think there are a lot of serious questions about that and those questions will seemingly continue to stream in as these agencies come under fire for the practice showing that metadata programs are not just happening to the national security agency. and that does it for now for more on the stories we covered go to youtube dot com forward slash r.t. america check out our website r t dot com for usa you can also follow me on twitter

at amir and david stay tuned boom bust is next. oh my god but i do no longer access bed clearly holy moley china bandspread coy how will we survive shrink the mainstream media well in fact by do the e bay of china no longer exists but call it but it was only ever one of by these many subsidiaries which is the big oil and that was just for one samsung product for several weeks and those weeks only one point three seven bit cleaner ever sent to buy do look here this is their wallets. please take a look very hard to take a. look at that sack with the earthquake

there are no. please. please. please the people.

hannah there i marinate it this is boom bust and here are some of the stories we're tracking for you today. first up j.p. morgan. nepotism especially in china now that's according to new documents on earth and published in the new york times we're going to tell you all about it coming right up and one of the sexiest metals known to man is behind some of the most criminal behavior the world has ever seen gold it's a complex thing and the best selling author matthew heart knows a thing or two about it he joins me to discuss his new book aptly titled gold and finally in today's big deal rachel courteous and i talk about the state battle for boeing and i'm not talking about archery not you won't want to miss it and it all starts right now.